RE:MH Racine Plant

Well done Gary and I hope you get them.

By this activity you have self nominated yourself to become the CHIEF historian for the Racine plant and we look forward to you organising a group around those parts to gather in all the history. WELL DONE and three cheers to success in the venture.

There just have to be a lot of old ex employees in the vicinity who have a wealth of information. Might I suggest for starters some letters or articles in local papers to attract attention to the cause. Now Mike Popp must surely be the prime candidate for being your local assistant - and I am sure that there are others. I know that it is a long haul to success but it can be a fascinating venture as I found when I researched our MH factories.

Then the Detroit and Btavia plants need documenting - at one of the Massey banquets some chap said he would get in touch with me with a load of info and photos but it sadly came to nothing. This is not unusual when you are on these quests in my experience, and in the end a relative few will turn out to be helpful and useful

And I don't exempt the Canadian MH men from this task either - they have some treasures to recall - Toronto, Brantford, Weston plants etc etc.

RE:MH Racine Plant

Well John & Gary,

What a book that would be. I'll be looking forward to buying a copy to read about all the M-H plants in the US and Canada and as a follow up the plants in Australia.

I've just got my copy of Legacy Quarterly and as you know if you take it there are some very interesting interveiws with ex Massey Employees in it. I find it fasinating to hear about how "THE MASSEY MACHINE TICKED"

RE:MH Racine Plant

Alan,

I couldn't agree with you more. The memories of the people that worked in these places really do bring the periods back to life in a most vivid way.

I have tried to include memories of the people of the times when I have been preparing books. It can be quite a slog getting the contacts, then the memories actually written down. My book " Memories of the Founding of Massey Ferguson" was composed entirely of the memories of ex employees - about 50 of them.

In my experience it's hard to get anything off the factory floor men but sales, service, engineering and managment are the more productive contacts.

Incidentally whilston the subject of ex MF men I must reccomend to all a relatively new book "Inside Massey Ferguson - a Story of Service" by David Walker which as the title suggests by an ex MF man who worked in the field service department. This is a truly rieveting read and difficult to put down. Another produced about three years ago is "Working at Masseys- the Rise and Fall of MF in the UK" by Ken Tyrell. Ken was actually a factory floor man and a trade union convenor so he tells a story from the "other side". Both two very fascinating reads.

So GARY, it's over to you now - form your team of ferrets and let them loose on Racine and Detroit.